Parents of District 26 Gifted and Talented Students to Hold Jan. 30 Meeting

Parents of Gifted and Talented students in District 26 will have their chance to voice complaints about recent changes to the city's admissions process during a meeting on Jan. 30 in Little Neck.

The meeting will begin at 8 p.m. in room B44A of M.S. 67, located at 51-60 Marathon Parkway in Little Neck.

In December, more than 30 parents representing the district’s 768 students from District 26, which covers northeast Queens schools, complained of abrupt changes to the program’s admission policies during Community District Education Council 26’s monthly meeting.

An online petition on the matter has gathered more than 750 signatures.

A group known as District 26 GT, which represents parents of District 26 Gifted and Talented students, said the new admission policy was rolled out without much notice in November, just four weeks before the deadline.

Additionally, the new city policy took away a precedent in which graduating fifth grade students were automatically transferred to a middle school program.

The petition’s signers are calling for the reinstatement of the automatic transfer policy as well as additional middle school seats for the program in the district.

The four schools in District 26 that have been affected by these changes in policy include Oakland Gardens’ P.S. 203, Flushing’s P.S. 188, Glen Oaks’ P.S. 115 and Queens Village’s P.S. 18.